A WordPress Website?

Get basic understanding of the WordPress website platform and its 8 attributes, so as to determine if it’s right for the type of website you need.

Designing and building a website starts by choosing the right website building platform to work with.

Seeing that «Wordpress» is the most popular website platform worldwide for millions of websites of all sizes and types, then it’s worthwhile to take a few minutes to understand, for yourself, why that is.

First things first : what do we mean by platform?

Essentially, in Internet technology a website building platform is a web-based application made up of core of programming codes specifically for the use of building websites.

Think of a website building platform as similar to a computer operating system (OS); so in the same way that one can download different applications to a computer’s OS, a web programmer can download specific website building applications to a website building platform.

These website building applications range from templates to various add-ons, better known as modules and plugins, such as sign-up forms, payment systems, chat functions, online calculators, portfolios, video player, quizzes, etc.

In essence, all the elements you see on a website —site map, texts, images, pop-up forms, etc. — connect onto (plug into) the website building platform’s codes.

WordPress website platform: 8 attributes that define it

The following 8 attributes of the WordPress website platform are what makes it a strong first choice for building all sizes and all types of websites for any size business, social or community activity. Read on.

1- The WordPress website platform is free

The fact is that there are 2 WordPress platforms, one is totally free (WordPress.org) and the other is company-owned (WordPress.com)

The free version is the one that is the most used worldwide for websites, and it is offered by the WordPress Foundation which is a non-profit organization. In other words, one simply downloads the latest version of the platform onto a server and then goes to work building a website.

The company-owned version is, at this time, a blog-dedicated platform and works on a modified version of WordPress.org — this might change eventually.

Another core feature of WordPress is that it is a CMS — Content Management System. This means that one can easily change quite a bit of one’s websites content, without needing to program any code.

This allows non-tech personnel in companies to go ahead and rapidly make changes, when needed, without having to rely on a programmer’s availability, nor his fees if the change request has to be out-sourced.

At the outset, this easy-to-use CMS factor is one of the main reasons that rocketed WordPress’ growth worldwide; at that time other CMS platforms often required a programmer’s intervention. Today many of the more popular CMS platforms are quite user-frienldy.

Open Source literally means that the basic source codes of the WordPress website platform are freely available to independent website designers and programmers.

And so, programmers can access those codes so as to create all kinds complementary applications such as website templates and modules or plugins, all to be used by website designers to customize each WordPress website they are tasked to build..

Consequently, there are thousands of templates and add-on components that a website designer can use to make a WordPress website do virtually anything.

Note that while many of the website templates and add-ons are offered for free, many more are offered at nominal fees, in which cases WordPress Non-Profit gets a percentage of sales.

4- WordPress website platform : security a priority

As witnessed in the news, no website is really, totally un-hackable.

As for WordPress, its big team of in-house 40 developers work continuously to close-up any possible breech in their platform, as small as it may be.

However, like any other open source website building platform WordPress websites are also secure to the degree that some very basic security guidelines are followed by its users :

host your website on up-to-date, secure servers that are properly «fire-walled» against hacking;

Initially WordPress came about as a blog platform, to then evolve into what it is today which is a means to allow any sized business to have websites without the high cost of using custom programming services and be tied down to a programmer.

Considering that all programmers are not necessarily of the same competence level when it comes to coding, and considering that programmers and clients do part ways for all kinds of reasons, then having a basic common structure to work with gives one and all more freedom.

With almost 40% of all websites in the world using WordPress, including numerous big name brands, the popularity of this website platform is undeniable and growing steadily.

And that growth in popularity is, in itself, a strong reason to consider using WordPress for a website; practically speaking, the more there are users, the more the technology will have to measure up to the user experience, and that includes, additional functionalities, speeding it up and tightening up security.

That being said, such popularity of WordPress means that there are 100’s of thousands of WordPress webdesigners — which consequently means that no matter what happens to a WordPress website, there is always someone in that community that can deal with the issue at hand.

So unless something really better and easier comes along, then WordPress is here to stay

Website download speeds are an important SEO factor; but speed download does not only depend on the platform.

That being said,naturally that WordPress’ team of designers are on top of making the platform the fastest possible.

Plus, today’s WordPress’ theme and plugin designers also take into account download speeds by offering lighter and faster loading themes, plugins and modules — this is all in keeping with WordPress’ growing popularity.

But do note that, beyond the WordPress platform and the themes and plugins used, there are many other factors involved that affect website download speed; that means that even if one uses fast downloading themes and plugins, a poorly structured website will slow it down.

Besides WordPress, what about other CMS platforms?

If you do a web search for CMS website platforms you will be shown many lists of several of these platforms, including WordPress.

However, you should know that these lists include a combination of :

– e-commerce platforms;– publishing platforms for blogs, news, etc.;– platforms that require some coding knowledge;– and basic platforms offered for free with a premium paid version as an option.

To all this you can add the fact that some of these platforms are built with a proprietary source code meaning that you pay to use them, often monthly payments the amounts of which are dependent on the size of the website, its traffic and plugins you need.

All these platforms have their place; however, you must clearly identify your medium and long term needs to help establish, if necessary, the right alternative to WordPress for your website.

And finally, which website building platform to use for your own website?

As just mentioned, there are many website building platforms out there and each one offering its array of features; so based on client requirements we, at V CommDesign (VCD), always recommend and work with the website building platform best suited to those requirements.

Now, if you are planning a new website soon, here is a free service that might help

To thank you for reading this article, I’d like to offer to prepare and present to you the results of a 5-Factor Website Analysis & Tactical Recommendations Service, tailor-made for your website project, and it is offered at no-cost to you.

This service means that you’ll be presented with our results as to the following:

1- A 5-factor competitive analysis of a few comparable websites in your industry.2- Five tactical recommendations that will make your new site stand out.

I’ll email you to set-up a phone meeting to properly kick-off the project.

Attention: First come, first served… and other standard conditions apply

Due to personnel and resources limitations and wanting to offer an excellent service without disrupting its ongoing projects, VCommDesign cannot guarantee it can accept all requests, therefore reserving the right to limit the number of requests at its discretion; and it can end this offer without prior notice.